


Here and There and Back Again

by WriterGreenReads



Category: Critical Role (Web Series), The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Crossover, Death, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, I wanted my tiefling back
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2019-07-25 20:32:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16205138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WriterGreenReads/pseuds/WriterGreenReads
Summary: This is the not first time a certain purple tiefling has woken up from the grave.These three are new, though.





	1. Chapter 1

He was drowning.

Darkness or dirt, he couldn’t tell but it filled his lungs. He struggled against the suffocating weight with desperate hands. Solid black crumbled in face of his clawing but it wasn’t  _ enough _ he couldn’t  _ breathe- _

The futile feeling of slowly digging upwards was horribly familiar.

“Hang on buddy, we’re getting you out of there!”

Voices, however, were  _ not. _

* * *

 

Graveyard dirt was simply awful to get out of nails. Taako frowned at his hands while he picked at said nails, the shiny purple polish sadly dinged up by today’s shenanigans.

“Magnus, it was  _ your _ job to take out vore-man  _ before _ he got all up in my business. Do you know how long it takes to redo these hands? Time is money, my man,” the elf complained.

Magnus looked up from where he was doing his best to loot a very mangled and still-smoldering zombie corpse with an offended pout.

“If you stayed within 5 feet of me I could  _ shield _ you! It’s kinda my thing you know.” The fighter swung up his shield and slung it over his back again. 

“Fellas, fellas. It’s not like we died.”

Taako sniffed and pointed directly at Merle.

“No thanks to  _ you _ . You know, I don’t think I’ve seen you cast a healing spell since you ran into Lup while she was juggling.”

“How was I supposed to know she was using fireballs?!”

“It’s  _ Lup _ , you lived with her for literally a 100 years, dipshit!”

Magnus rolled his eyes and continued kicking through the crunchy remains littering the  ground while his friends bickered good-naturedly in the background. There wasn’t much. They taken an odd job while traveling through Neverwinter coming home from taking a much-needed vacation after the events of the Day of Story and Song, as it had come to be known thanks to Johann. The locals were complaining about some weird rocks and zombie types in an old graveyard off the outskirts of town and grudgingly on two of their parts, they had swung by to see what they could do. Some type of undead wandered the mostly abandoned site, easily enough dealt with by the three heroes. 

Magnus crouched and fingered through a scattering of shattered crystal that was left behind from the humanoid corpses when they crumbled. Pretty shards, a motley of colors and shapes, but none of them especially were interesting to him. He continued on, nearly running into a post with a brightly colored coat hanging from it.

A silvery white shine caught Magnus’s eye. Blinking, he spotted a small disk on the turned dirt of what seemed to be a much fresher grave than the rest. 

“Hey, Taako?”

The elf paused mid-insult and tossed a quirked eyebrow in the human’s direction.

“Yeah?”

“Remember when we were in Lucas’s lab and everything was crystal and shit?”

“ _ I _ remember,” Merle muttered. “Your arm obsession came in real  _ hand _ y, you could say.” Magnus wrinkled his nose and waved them over. 

“Whatever, but look. Doesn’t this look like the circle thingies that Lucas made? The portaly ones. Taako?”

Taako squinted and flicked the perfect gleaming disk with a careful finger. The white material made a sharp tinkling sound.

“I’m not sure if moonstone qualifies as a crystal, my dude, but, uh, yeah. Circle shiny thing, can only be grown, not cut, yadda yadda yadda. Didn’t pay attention to a lot of it, then I remembered I knew all of it, so I’m an expert, I guess. So what?”

Magnus scratched his jaw thoughtfully. 

“I dunno, thought it was cool, I guess. Maybe we could- Merle?”

The cleric glared up at the two from where he was laying on the soft earth, ear pressed down in the soil.

“SHHHH. I’m listening.”

“Andddd, that’s it fellas, the late Merle Highchurch has finally cracked.” Taako whistled and clapped his hands. “What took you so long? Communing with your leafy brethren?”

Merle closed his eyes and shook his head.

“Someone’s down there.”

Taako paused, both him and Magnus staring down at the grave now.

“What, like buried?” Magnus blurted out.

“Yeah!”

“Isn’t that the whole  _ point _ of a graveyard, my guy?”

“Not if they’re still alive, it isn’t!”

“Merle, move!” Magnus bodily lifted the cleric off to the side and began pawing at the earth. Taako sighed and took a step forwards, peering over Magnus’s broad back.

“Soooo are we grave-robbing now? Not that I’m completely against it, but the people who’re paying us might get mad.”

Magnus shook his head as he continued digging, a serious expression on his face.

“No, Taako, Merle is right. I can hear them too. Someone’s alive down there.”

The dirt shifted suddenly, writhing beneath Magnus’s hands and gaining its movement from the other side of the shallow hole he was digging.

“Oh, shit!” Taako leaned back. “I... Ya know, I don’t think I have a spell for this.”

“Hang on buddy,” Magnus shouted downwards. “We’re getting you out of there!”

Merle shoved Magnus back.

“Let the Pan cleric do his job.” He cracked his one set of dwarven knuckles. “Watch and learn, boys.”

The dwarf sunk his fingers into the ground and closed his eyes. The dirt rumbled, tiny shoots of green springing forth from the loam until finally, an enormous section of loose earth crumbled upwards and flung itself sideways. A desperate, filthy hand stretched upwards from the grave as a slim figure was uncovered.

Magnus leapt forwards once again and grabbed the person by the arm, hauling them out of what most certainly would have been their grave if it wasn’t already. They crumpled to their knees, hacking and spitting up wads of muck and soil as they wheezed and shook.

“Who are you? Are you ok? Why were you buried?” Magnus demanded as he roughly patted the back of what was now obviously a tiefling, purple skin visible through the accumulated graveyard dirt. Merle sighed and caught Magnus’s hand.

“Don’t knock the wind out of him again, he just got it back!” The cleric rubbed his hands together briefly before carefully laying them on the shoulders of the stranger. The tiefling’s coughing lessened and his breath gradually evened out as the soft healing magic sunk into his body. Finally, he wiped the back of his hand across his mouth and took a deep breath.

“I’m afraid I only know the answer to one of those questions,” he said, voice raspy but remarkably calm. “I’m alright as one can be now, after almost suffocating under a mound of dirt, but I haven’t the faintest idea of the other two answers. Who are you?”


	2. Chapter 2

The world was almost too loud and bright at the moment, colors and sounds and shapes all mashing together as he blinked and tried to steady his breathing. The three people in front of him were fortunately giving him time to catch up.

But was  _ he _ correct? They thought about it for a moment, rolling the pronoun around in their thoughts, testing it, before deciding that yes,  _ he _ worked. It felt right.

_ For this time _ a voice whispered but he shook his head, dismissing the voice that wasn't really his.

“I'm Magnus,” the burly human man was currently saying, hand outstretched to shake. “Magnus Burnsides.”

He reached out and grasped the others palm, feeling the rough calluses and the obvious strength. He cast a glance at the other two.

“Merle Highchurch,” was the dwarf and all the tall elvish figure offered was “Taako, you know from TV. Or, Voidfish brain TV, recently.”

“...Right,” he slowly said. “Well… I’d return the courtesy but I’m afraid…” His head ached, like it was reaching for answers that just weren’t there. “I’m afraid that I don’t… I don’t know. Who I am.”

Magnus’s puzzled and concerned gaze drifted downwards to his chest for a second before blinking and plucking something off-white and wrinkly off his shirt. 

A piece of parchment?

Magnus brushed some loose dirt off his find and squinted at the slanted characters.

“Mollymauk Tealeaf?”

He-  _ Molly _ \- stared at Magnus as the words ticked some memory and his name fell through his thoughts on fluttering wind. “How did you know that?”

Magnus quirked an eyebrow, waving the parchment. 

“It says right here.  _ Your name is Mollymauk Tealeaf.  _ That’s you?”

“Yes-but I,” he swallowed. Shook his head once again, feeling the soft patter of earrings and baubles hanging off his horns and wisps of curls of hair. “Apologies. It’s a bit confusing in this head right now. May I see that?” he asked, gesturing towards the filthy parchment.

Magnus handed it over willingly enough, sitting besides him on the soft dirt of what Molly presumed was a graveyard. Merle and Taako exchanged looks with each other in the background before claiming various spot on the fence surrounding the plot of land.

The parchment was slightly rough to the touch and had a spidery scrawl carefully etched across its surface. Molly blew softly on it, dislodging the dirt that remained and shook it out before reading.

_ Your name is Mollymauk Tealeaf. _

As he read, Molly remained silent, keeping his face blank and taking in the words that were written so carefully and with such great pain behind them. He racked his brain for an inkling of who this person was that was described in such detail- but there was nothing but a smooth wall guarding answers he thought he might, at one point, have desperately needed to know.

~~_ If _ ~~ _ When you wake up, come find us. We are The Mighty Nein. And you are one of us, Mister Mollymauk. _

_ Caleb Widogast _

Molly let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding before folding the letter neatly and tucking it into a pouch he found hanging from his hip. He glanced up, meeting Magnus’s eyes as the other man stared steadily back at him.

“Are you ok?” Magnus asked bluntly.

Molly smiled wryly.

“I believe so, yes.” He rose to his feet, brushing at the dark stains that covered the white of his shirt. “Now. I seem to be lost, and I have next to no clue who I used to be. Oh. That's mine." He reached out for the brightly colored coat that hung on the post nearby and swung it around his shoulders, a warm feeling of familiarity and comfort filling him. "That being said, I suppose I am in need of work.” He checked his pockets and belt pouches and was mildly amused to find no gold in any of them. “Can I help you gentlemen with anything?”

“We’d ask you to join the Bureau of Balance but it’s kinda been disbanded, homie,” Taako called out from his fence perch.

“Didn’t Lucretia rename it?”

Taako squinted at Merle. Merle rolled his eyes.

“Forget I said anything.”

“I always do.”

“Well what are we gonna do? We can’t just  _ leave _ him here, guys,” Magnus protested.

“I mean we  _ could _ ,” Taako said, raising a finger. “It’s a graveyard. Spooky purple man here came out of the grave.  _ Love _ your horns and that coat by the way, darling,” he interrupted himself, pointing at Molly. “Death couture. I’m into it.”

Molly swept him a dramatic half-bow that felt strangely familiar, grinning.

“Why thank you. What’s the point of being fashionable in life if you can’t be equally fashionable in death?”

Taako tapped his chin, a slow lazy smirk creeping its way up his pointed features.

“Never mind, I like him. Can we keep him?”

“You only had to ask, but at least buy me dinner first.”

“Tough luck pumpkin, I’m already dating a handsome death-boy.”

“Get a roooooooom,” Merle scoffed. Taako’s head whipped around, glaring.

“Shut up, plant-fucker, you have no room to talk!”

“Uh,” Magnus interrupted, raising his hand. “Taako, actually, that's kind of a good point.”

“Hell yeah, roast ‘em Magnus.”

“Not what I meant.” Magnus jerked a thumb back in the direction of Molly. “But yeah either he’s supposed to be dead-” here he cast an apologetic look at the tiefling “- or someone was trying to do like necromancy and shit and super fucked up.” He frowned, brow furrowing. “Or succeeded. Whatever.”

“That makes sense,” Merle offered. “What about the crystal thingamajig?”

Magnus waved a smooth circle of a white crystalline material at Molly, turning to face him.

“Have you ever seen this before?”

Molly quirked an eyebrow, but accepted the strange object. He turned it over in his hands, tapping it gently and watching the light reflect off its surface. A moment passed, then two, as he stared into it.

The white spread through his mind, and he blinked at the intrusive feeling before it quickly faded.

“I don’t believe so,” he said slowly, still eyeing it suspiciously. “But it definitely ticked something in my memory for a second.” He handed it back, frowning. “It’s gone now.”

Magnus nodded.

“I think we should take him back to the moon and see what Barry and Capn’port and the others have to say about all this. Oh! And Taako you should get your boyfriend on the stone and see if he can make it over.”

“I’m sorry,” Molly interjected, feeling significantly more confused. “To the moon?”

The three exchanged glances, identical and slightly wicked grins appearing at the question.

“Ohhhhh buddy,” Merle cackled. “Have we got news for you!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I decided I liked this so I'm continuing it. Buckle up for shenanigans, everyone.


	3. Chapter 3

In Taako’s humble opinion, Mollymauk was a  _ fine _ looking possibly evil  undead creation. If he wasn’t already happily tied to Kravitz, he would have moved in on that, stat. 

As it was, it was certainly fun watching him take in the sights and experiences of being in one of the moon cannon balls. A quick shout out to Avi using the Stones of Farspeeh and upwards they went.

Mollymauk’s eyes, an open red, were vibrant with wonder and obvious glee as he leaned against the window of the ball, breath fogging up the glass as he stared downwards through the clouds. 

“Never flown before, Mollymauk my man?” he asked.

“Molly, please,” he replied, grinning but not taking his view away from the sights. The vibrant colors of the peacock tattoo that curled up his neck and cheek shone faintly in the changing light. “And no. This is  _ incredible. _ How does the magic work?”

“Uh, Levitation spell on the ball to make it lighter- balloon does the rest.” Taako leaned back against his seat, grinning at Molly’s curiosity. “If ya wanna know more, hit up Avi when we get up there- he built the things.”

“Fascinating,” Molly murmured, the cadence of his accent lending an interesting lilt to the word. “The world is truly a wonderous place.”

A thick shadow crossed their faces momentarily and all the occupants looked up instinctively. Up above, the bottom doors of the moon base were sliding open on schedule as they ascended. Magnus let out the soft  _ whoop _ that he did every time, the same amount of glee filling his expressive features as the first time they’d taken this trip.

Some things never got old.

A series of soft clicks and clunks and the cannon ball came to rest on the floor of the hanger. The air hissed as the door unsealed itself. Taako peered through the thick glass to catch sight of their resident cannon engineer. Sure enough, Avi glanced up from behind his control panel and waved quickly with his customary half-smile of greeting.

Magnus charged out first, shortly followed by Merle, who’d never really enjoyed the trips as much as everyone else, with Taako and Molly bringing up the rear, though in Molly’s case it was more of a case of taking in everything he could rather than any lack of enthusiasm.

“Avi, my man!” Magnus called out as he made a beeline for the engineer.

“Aw, hey Magnus.” Avi nodded towards them, leaning on the booth wall. “Taako, Merle.” He caught sight of Molly and his eyes widened for a moment as he took in the outlandishly-dressed rainbow of a tiefling. “And who’s your friend?”

Molly bounced forwards, bowing with a sweep of his coat and a rakish smile.

“Mollymauk Tealeaf, at your service, my dear man. You must be the famous Avi I’ve heard so much about.” He leaned closer to the other man, prompting a quick flush from Avi as Molly shook his hand. Molly leaned even closer.

“You simply  _ must  _ have lunch with me sometime soon. I am absolutely  _ fascinated  _ by your work here, these cannon balls truly are marvels of magic and engineering. I’m looking forwards to the  _ conversations _ we could have. Simply incredible.” The tiefling grinned, showing off gleaming pointed teeth.

“Uh,” Avi said intelligently. Taako noted with interest that he’d never seen Avi turn quite that shade of red before.

Oh, Taako  _ liked _ this man.

Magnus apparently took pity on the now incredibly flustered Avi and gently tugged Molly away from him.

“Come on, flirt later. We’ve gotta make sure you’re not gonna turn into a freaking zombie or something in the middle of the moon base.”

Molly sighed dramatically and let himself be led away. “Shame. That  _ would _ be inconvenient.”

Taako winked at Avi, who made a sort of strangled noise in the back of his throat as the four left the cannon bay.

Magnus led Molly ahead through the hallways, the tiefling asking questions about the base and its occupants while Magnus answered just as enthusiastically. Taako slowed his pace a bit to get out of their conversation bubble before taking out his Stone of Farspeech and connecting to Kravitz. The stone hummed briefly, runes shining with a soft blue glow as the magic reached out and took affect. 

“Hey there bubbeleh, it’s me, cha’ boy. Ya busy?”

The distant sounds of vague explosions and fired off spells filtered through the enchantment for a few moments before Kravitz’s voice came through, sounding a little breathless and distracted.

“Uh, only a little. What did you need?” A deep bassy  _ thruuum _ sounded off, a familiar sign of Kravitz’s magic being put to use. 

“Well,” Taako glanced up ahead at their new friend in the making. “We found a guy. He, uh, might be dead. Might not. He was buried in a graveyard with a bunch of zombies but he’s ya know- not all “blaasrrggh” and face-bitey, so that’s good.”

“Oh. Umm-“ Kravitz swore under his breath and hummed a quick refrain in retaliation to whatever was happening on his end before continuing. “What exactly do you mean by “might be dead?”

“Welllll… remember all the ghost gunk that came out of the sapphire stuff in Lucas’s lab? We found like- crystal stuff. And there were also zombie types wandering around and I mean like that’s why we were  _ there _ in the first place but yeah. Crystal circles. Sound familiar?”

“Ah. Yes.” Another crackle and a satisfied huff from Kravitz. “That does sound a little like something I should take a look at. I’ll do my best to wrap this up quick and make it over, ok?”

Taako smiled, hiding the fond look that he knew his boyfriend couldn’t see anyways. “Thanks, handsome. Kick their asses for me.”

Kravitz’s chuckle was low and breathless. “I’ll do my best. Good-bye, love.”

The Sending magic ended with a soft click. Taako slung the Stone back around his neck before hurrying after his companions.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Le plot chickens

Kravitz pivoted on the balls of his feet, clapping his hands together in a business-like fashion as he took one last look at the cave the necromancers had claimed as their lair.

“Lair.” How positively medieval. Kravitz had yet to 100% prove that contact with death magic meant one was predisposed to melodramatics, but all signs pointed to yes so far. 

Dark, damp, and a significant distance into the cave system, the passage widened out into a larger space finally. Appropriately spooky torches flickered on the walls. Honestly- would it have killed them to get better lighting in here? How did they even see what they were performing rituals on. 

Anyways. The fight had been rather irritating. Necromancers nowadays seemed to be unable to grasp the concept of  _ consent _ and its importance when pertaining to rituals and deals. You can’t use someone  _ else’s  _ soul to make the deal with the demon patron. That’s besides the whole point. These ones however, were determined to force some other poor man to give up his eternal soul for their own gains, so Kravitz had to keep  _ him _ safe while still defeating the cult without collapsing the cave on everyone’s heads. And of course, the victim had run out screaming the moment the coast was moderately clear. 

It had been a while since he’d gotten to use his more original forms of magic, though. So he supposed it balanced out in the end. 

A shattering sound broke him out of his musings, and Kravitz’s head snapped left to follow the source of the sound. He cautiously stepped forwards, stepping over an ashen bundle of robes that used to be a not-very-nice man and scanned the general wreckage of their supplies with a wary eye. Broken potions, the odd skull, some cheap-looking gemstones, all scattered in the midst of the collapsed tables. The dark red tablecloth was crumpled and stained black in places where another body had landed on it.

What had shattered recently?

A few more moments of looking finally turned up the object of interest. Kravitz brushed aside a greasy pile of ash with a small arcane puff of air, exposing a gleaming circle of shards.

“Interesting,” he said softly, tilting his head. His locs fell over his shoulder, having come loose. He had swapped back to his human form when Taako called. It may be less powerful than his reaper one, but it was hard enough to enunciate when you don’t actually have lips, and he was a bit distracted. He brushed them back, absentmindedly summoning another ribbon and tying them at the nape of his neck once again. 

Crystals were special to the arcane, being able to not only hold and store magical energy, but also to amplify and change it if used correctly. The Material Plane was surrounded by webs of such energy, binding and manifesting the other planes in that manner. 

And well, as everyone had now discovered, with the proper application, one could break through the planes.

Kravitz was  _ very _ busy now. 

He delicately picked one of the larger shards up, turning it over in his fingers and allowing it to catch the limited light. This had definitely been a circle of crystal- moonstone, if he wasn’t mistaken. 

Taako had mentioned them when he called not an hour before. This couldn’t be a coincidence.

As he held it, concerned and deep in thought, a new source of light reflected off the white surface of the crystal. Kravitz flinched instinctively, snapping his gaze around to find the source. 

There was a sharp pain on the pad of his thumb as the shard slipped. 

Kravitz blinked. He looked down. 

Dark red smeared the moonstone, dripping down his thumb in fat droplets. Kravitz stared, shocked.

He hadn’t bled in…

How long had it been, now?

Since he was human.

A dull, long-forgotten sensation fluttered in his chest. He exhaled. Real, actual air flooded his lungs as he drew breath, dumbfounded. His heart beat, almost euphoric in its surprise, an ancient feeling of relief following each breath as he was somehow  _ forced _ to need it once again.

There was magic. Old magic, the tingly feeling stuffing itself in his head, like a sneeze building up in his sinuses. Familiar, and not, it  _ grounded _ him in the moment.

“What in the hells?”

Something on the very edge of his senses  _ shrieked _ , a horrible noise that shook him to his bones and had him grit his teeth as the wave crashed over him. It rattled in his very corporeal, very  _ human  _ ears and it took most of his willpower not to clap his hands over them helplessly. 

There, in front of him, refracting off the broken circle of moonstone like some wild prismatic puddle of ink, was a rift. Reality splintered and fractured around his form as the very fabric of the planes  _ screamed _ , torn asunder and tossed away.

Kravitz closed his eyes and held on.

Silence.

The taste of blood clung to his teeth, an unwelcome reminder of his current mortality. 

“You too, huh?”

Kravitz bit down huff of surprise at the smooth and unexpected voice and pushed himself into a sitting position, blinking his eyes open once more. He was in an open space, smooth white walls and flooring, though he didn't remember falling in the rather undignified heap he now found himself in. He shook his head, anxiety bubbling up and being forced away just as quickly. 

He flexed his fingers, looking down at them. He tried to call forth his magic- to change forms, move light, anything.

Nothing.

“Hey. You alive? I mean I’m not but I’m not going to judge if you are.”

Kravitz almost rolled his eyes, finally glancing up and catching sight of the nonchalant speaker. 

Another man shared the empty space with him, casually leaning against a curved wall of whatever they were residing in at the moment. 

He wore black leather armor, a ruffle of iridescent feathers over his shoulders, blending into his dark hair where it fell past his ears. Half- elf. Currently looking a strange mix of exasperated and curious. 

“Who are you?” Kravitz asked, not bothering to use his work voice in face of the severity of the moment. The half-elf raised an eyebrow.

“You can call me Vax. And sorry to be the one to tell you this, mate- but we’re fucked.”

**Author's Note:**

> To be updated as the muse takes me.


End file.
